Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Happy Sunday night everyone! I am truly sorry for the absence, but ever since comic con I have had some very time consuming things to take care of.  The last few years I have coached youth football for my cities local team the Corona Chargers.  Well we just started our season last week and it has forced me to switch all my shifts at work to the daytime so that I could be at practice five nights a week.  Very stressful indeed.  Also most recently, I fell very ill and did not have much energy to say the least.

 However all that did not stop me from seeing this little film called Guardians of the Galaxy three times in its opening weekend.  Thats right I PAYED to see this movie all three times, once in 3D Imax and

the other two times in standard.  But enough foreplay, lets talk Guardians.  

Marvel studios, in my opinion, has officially surpassed Pixar as the most successful movie makers in the business today.  Every Pixar movie is amazing, and almost a lock for best animated picture at the Oscars.  Even the weaker Pixar films are still better than anything any other studio picks out.  The difference between Pixar and Marvels success is that Pixar puts out a movie every couple of years, while Marvel is cranking out two every single year, and has a two movies a year on the slate until 2028!  The consistency of quality and box office success is astounding.  This all suddenly came to my attention upon seeing Guardians of the Galaxy (GOTG) for the first time.  Marvel has taken an unknown property about a very diverse group of misfits, put them in outer space, had an unknown director take the reigns, and the people of America and the WORLD came out in droves to see it!  I mean if some unknown rich guy funded the exact same movie without the Marvel brand name I guarantee you it doesn't have half of the same success.  Anyways I think it is safe to say that this is the funnest movie of the year.  Maybe of the last two years.  This film is incredibly paced, and that is all due to the great vision of director James Gunn; who is already hard at work on the sequel.  The movie stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, a human who was abducted from earth as a child, and who now goes around the galaxy stealing rare objects and selling them to the highest bidder.  Essentially a hybrid of Han Solo and Indiana Jones.  It also features Zoe Saldana in some green body paint playing some sexy ass assassin named Gamora.  Then there is professional wrestler turned actor Dave Batista playing the steroid riddled vengeance seeker Drax the Destroyer.  These charcters are all awesome, but going into the movie there were a lot of questions about the last two members:  Rocket Raccoon and Groot.  Rocket is voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Groot is voiced by Vin Diesel.  Probably the two most random actors they could have gotten to play these two characters.  Groot is an eight foot tree creature whose powers are so badass that I won't spoil them for you here.  Oh and by the way, he only says three words the whole movie.  Literally.  Rocket is a talking raccoon.  Who likes weapons.  He's awesome.  The strength of this movie is easily the chemistry amongst the five members of the team and their various interactions amongst each other.  It suffers a bit from the whole "they hate

Gamora,  Peter Quill (Star-Lord),   Rocket,    Drax,    Groot

each other at first, but end up rallying together to beat the bad guy and are best friends at the end cliche", but oh well it was to be expected.  Also, it would be criminal to write a review of this movie without mentioning the soundtrack.  Maybe the best use of music to compliment a movie that I have ever seen.  Some people might laugh at me for saying that, but whatever I only have like 10 readers anyway.  The main character, Peter Quill, was taken from earth in 1988, and all he had with him was a walkman music player with a single cassette tape filled with 70's music.  From the opening scene to the ending scene we are graced with multiple seventies hits including "The Pina Colada song" and "I want you Back" by the Jackson 5.  The music shows how much a really good soundtrack can help a movies likability.  The story of GOTG is nothing spectacular so I won't go into great detail.  This movie just needed to get these characters together so that they could work their magic.  I don't really feel like digging into spoilers or sharing jokes from the movie because it truly is a wonderful movie going experience that needs to be had on your own.  Trust me, you do not need to be a fan of super heroes, sci-fi, or action to like this movie.  So if you like fun things, have two free hours plus 12$, then get your ass to the theater and see this movie.  You're welcome.

Score:  9/10
Verdict:  My Grandma would love it (See it!)